


Pensare School of Psionics

by Heather Dursley (Keolah)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Character Death, Colonization, Exploration, Future Fic, Gen, Worldbuilding, psychic powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2004-01-01
Updated: 2004-01-01
Packaged: 2017-11-17 11:54:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/551268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Keolah/pseuds/Heather%20Dursley
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the far future, a group of wizards colonize a new planet.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pensare School of Psionics

**Planetary Survey**

The spaceship _Ashwinder_ dropped out of hyperspace, entering an unexplored section of space. The system they entered had been designated the Tenebrian system, and was a binary star. The crew began their initial surveys of the system.

"Wide binary system," muttered Benjamin Wood as he took notes. "Three planets orbitting the primary star. Two planets and an asteroid belt around the smaller star. Although, the second planet around that smaller star has a very wide orbit, it might get snagged in the other star's gravity. It may be a rogue planet. More intriguing."

"I've got in the preliminary scans of the planets," reported Lt. Daisy Potter.

"Any habitable planets?" asked Captain Horatio Longbottom.

"Affirmative, Captain," Potter responded. "The second planet of the primary star. Nitrogen-oxygen atmosphere. A year of 212 days. 23 hour days. Almost no axial tilt, making for little seasonal variation. 90% of the mass of Earth."

"Helm, take us into orbit," Captain Longbottom ordered, turning back to the viewscreen. "Deploy probes to conduct mineral surveys of the other planets."

The _Ashwinder_ approached and entered orbit around the green planet, spotted by flecks of blue and brown.

Lt. Potter performed scans of the planet as the ship orbitted. "46% of the planet is covered by water, mainly in lakes of various sizes. No major bodies of water. Moderate sized ice caps. Abundant plant life."

"Any intelligent life forms or animal life?"

"A number of animals, mainly small and medium sized. No indications of civilization," Potter reported.

The captain nodded, stroking his beard. "Assemble a survey team to go down and do more detailed analyses and collect samples."

Commander Wood, the first officer, stood up and said, "Potter, Zabini, you're with me," and headed out to the shuttle bay. Lt. Potter and Zabini, the geologist, followed him.

On the planet's surface, the three of them plus an armed security officer were performing surveys of the plant life, and Tenebrian II's numerous insects.

"We've only been here twenty minutes and I've already catalogued sixty distinct species of insect!" Lt. Potter exclaimed, snatching another that had landed on her skin-tight protective suit. "Sixty-one."

Ben Wood chuckled slightly and continued scanning a nearby tree. "Strong, dense bark in these trees. They might provide a useful building material for colonists."

Meanwhile, Zabini was scanning the rocks and soil. The soil was dark and rich, while the rocks were mainly large pieces of broken stone scattering the hillside to the east. Over that hillside, the second, smaller sun was rising. Zabini glanced up at the suns and wondered aloud, "Why is this place called Tenebria again?"

"I have no idea," Ben replied. "Dark and gloomy is the last thing I'd call it."

"Let's call this planet Longbottom," Lt. Potter suggested with a wry grin.

The first officer and geologist chuckled politely. Zabini then looked around, and said, "Hey, wait a minute, where's Ensign Bell?"

None of them had noticed the security officer's disappearance. Wood punched his wrist communicator and said, "Wood to Ensign Bell. Where are you, Bell?" There was no response.

"I thought you said there were no large animals here?" Zabini asked Potter.

"There aren't!" Lt. Potter protested. "And even if there were, we'd have heard or seen something."

"Scan for lifesigns," Wood said, again punching his wrist-comm. "Wood to _Ashwinder_. Ensign Bell is missing. Can you get a fix on his location?"

"Negative, Commander," came the reply. "There's too much plant and animal life around your location to get a fix on anything."

Zabini peered at the ground. "I've found some footprints. I think they're his."

"No animal prints?" Wood asked.

"Negative."

"Let's follow them and see where he went," Wood said, pulling out his sidearm and scanning the vicinity. "But be careful."

A faint, musical whistling sound could be heard from the direction the trail went. "Did anyone hear that?" Potter asked.

"Hear what?" Ben Wood replied.

"I don't hear anything," Zabini said.

"A sort of whistling sound. There it is again," Potter pointed off in the direction it came from.

The forest opened ahead of them onto the shore of a small lake. "Do you suppose he fell in the lake?" Wood wondered. The whistling sound came again, louder this time, and it seemed to be coming from the water.

"I want to go down and see what's making that sound," Potter said, starting to climb down the steep bank.

"I hear it now," Zabini said. "Some sort of water reeds?"

A number of fish-like creatures could be seen moving beneath the surface of the water, their dull scales barely noticable against the sunstruck waters. Zabini also reported that Ensign Bell's trail ended at this bank, so he must have gone into the water. Potter climbed down next to the water and began scanning the surface.

"Can't tell much from up here, with all the fish. There might be something down there, there might not," Potter reported.

"Be careful, Lieutenant," Wood warned her. Zabini also climbed down next to the water.

Potter waded into the water, the small fish nipping at her but their tiny mouths unable to penetrate her protective suit. Holding the scanner underwater, however, she quickly found what she was looking for. A humanoid body at the bottom of the lake, face-down and entangled in water weeds.

"I don't know how he got here or why, sir, but he's down here, dead."

The whistling sound was increasing and becoming higher pitched, the fish becoming more frantic and swimming faster, their backs breaking the surface of the water over and over. Zabini waded into the water. "It's those fish," he said, watching them with fascination. "They're making that sound."

"Let's try and catch one," Potter said, "It beats cataloguing insects."

Wood climbed down next to the water as Zabini and Potter attempted to catch a fish. Their efforts were outdone, however, by the speed and slickness of the little fish. "What are you doing?" he asked.

"Attempting to retrieve a biological sample of this aquatic lifeform," Potter replied, almost falling into the water.

"Wouldn't it be easier to use a net?" the commander asked.

Potter plunged into the water headlong after a fish. Zabini grabbed at her to pull her out. Wood reached in to drag them both out of the water. "Something's not right here. Get out of the water!" he shouted.

"But--" Potter protested.

"That's an order!"

Zabini and Potter climbed out of the water and back up to the bank after Wood. As if in response, the humming of the fish seemed to go quiet and lowered in pitch, disappointedly. Lt. Potter looked down at the water, as a couple fish snapped up some insects flying near the surface.

"That sound..." Potter murmured. "It's almost hypnotic. I competely forgot what I was doing down there."

"Well, that would explain it," the first officer smirked. "I always was tone-deaf."

Potter opened up a data pad and catalogued the fish. "Siren fish. Uses hypnotic whistling sound to catch insects. Use caution."

Wood tapped his wrist-comm. "Wood to _Ashwinder_. We've found Ensign Bell. He's dead, drowned in a lake. The rest of us are alright. We're returning to the ship."

"Acknowledged."

Lance Weasley, the chief astro-cartographer, had set about to naming the heavenly bodies located within the Tenebrian system, but leaving the honor of naming the habitable planet to the captain. The two stars, he had dubbed Fred and George, after his nephew's newborn twin sons, who were themselves named after ancestors. The asteroid belt he named the Regina Belt, after his ex-girlfriend. He called George's first planet Barbara, after his sister, because it was a very hot and temperamental planet, much like his sister. Fred's first planet he named Miriam, after his mother. The third planet received the name Hogsmeade, after Weasley's hometown. And the rogue planet he dubbed Rover, after his dog.

After the captain approved the names, the away team returned and presented their reports. "I believe calling the planet Bell would be appropriate under the circumstances," the captain said.

"How about Janus, after his first name?" Wood suggested.

Captain Longbottom nodded. "Very well. Planet Janus it is." He nodded to Lance Weasley to make note of it. "Have we gotten in the results from the probes yet?"

"Affirmative," said Wood, looking over the data that had been transmitted back from them. "It appears the planet Miriam has high concentrations of heavy metals and other resources. Hogsmeade also has some useful energy sources that could be tapped."

"Excellent," Longbottom repied. "It'll be an excellent location for a colony. I'll transmit our report and send in a recommendation to send a colony ship out here. Is there anything else of note?"

"Negative, Captain," Ben Wood said.

"Then recall the probes and prepare to set a course for the next system."

"Yes, sir."

* * *

**The Colony**

The colony ship _Abraxas Malfoy_ dropped out of hyperspace and entered the Tenebrian system. The enormous ship entered orbit around the planet Janus, and began sending the thousands of colonists to the surface in shuttles. On the bridge, Dwight Smith, the leader of the colonists, stood staring down at the speckled green planet from the viewscreen.

"Not going to be staying with us, Oswald?" he said to the captain.

"Nah. Not my cup of tea. I'll drop you fellas and your supplies and ships off and be heading back to civilization."

Dwight chuckled. "One day, Tenebria will be part of what you call civilization."

"Perhaps. Good luck to you folks nonetheless," Oswald said.

"Thank you," said Dwight Smith. "I'd better head down to the surface. Goodbye."

"Bye, Dwight," said the captain as Dwight turned and headed down to the nearest shuttle bay.

On the surface of Janus, the colonists were gathering around a central location that would become their capital city, setting up temporary shelters and assessing the locale. Some of the scientists were busy making a more thorough survey of the planet's flora and fauna, while other people were talking and making plans. One man already had a great deal planned out, it seemed. He approached Dwight and shook his hand.

"My name is Jacques Pensare," he introduced himself. "I'm the colony's chief psionicist."

"Really," Dwight said neutrally.

"I'm of the opinion that psionics has been restricted far too much unnecessarily on Earth, and I'd like to give the people of Janus a chance at something different," he went on. "In ancient days, some superstitiously called it 'magic'. But we have come a long way since then. Why should we continue with such crutches as wand-waving and incantations? If we can train the next generation not to rely on them, they could be far more powerful and capable."

"Interesting theory," Mr. Smith said thoughtfully. "I'm listening, although I'm certain that some of our sponsers would have a fit if they heard wind of it."

"I plan to build a School of Psionics to educate people and teach them about the mind and how to tap into their mental powers," Pensare continued. "And we should start them younger, as well. By the age of eleven, their abilities have already begun to develop and atrophy from uncontrolled use."

"Hmm," Dwight said, scratching his chin. "I had been planning on setting up a more traditional school, like Hogwarts. But you may have a point. If we're ever going to shake up our traditions and build a new cultural identity for a new world, now is the time to do it."

"I'm glad that you see things my way," Jacques said.

"Education is always a good thing." Dwight nodded. "Do you have a location in mind yet?"

Jacques Pensare pointed up to the hills east of the valley. "I thought at the plateau overlooking the valley would be a good location. There's a nice solid bedrock there. The surveyers said the soil was too poor to support crops up there very easily."

"Good thinking," Dwight told him. "Proceed."

"Thank you, you won't regret this," Jacques smiled, and hurried off.

Before a crowd of onlookers, Pensare gave a big speech to commemorate the beginning of construction of the new school.

"No longer will psionics be treated with superstition," Pensare announced. "With the opening of my new School of Psionics, it will be available to all children from a young age."

Not all of the colonists were entirely eager about having a magic school, by any name, active in their vicinity, however. It was no coincidence that Hogwarts had been located in the middle of nowhere, with only a small village that had grown near it for miles around. Upon discovering what Jacques's plans were, a number of them moved to the far west end of the valley, or migrated down to the lakeside to the south.

"But I want to go to Pensare!" Little Billy insisted.

"No, and that's final. I'll train you in the traditional manner, with your father's wand," his mother said sternly, grabbing his hand and leading him away.

"But mom!" he whined as he was dragged away.

After overseeing the beginning of construction of the school, Mr. Smith went to meet with the scientists to discover their conclusions about the plant and animal life of Janus. They had been zipping all over the planet's surface in small craft, collecting samples and making thorough maps of the topography.

"The planet has no indigenous life larger than two feet long," Eugene Nott, the chief geneticist, explained. "We're going to have to engineer some working animals to fill in the gap."

"See to it," Dwight approved.

"There are, however, a number of plants that could make useful crops," Mr. Nott continued. "Fruits, nuts, legumes, and something that might be a distant cousin of wheat. We'll be looking into cultivating them and improving upon their stock if necessary. A nice variety. I look forward to seeing the local dishes our cooks think up."

"Excellent," Dwight Smith grinned, heading off to check on the fleet department.

The colonists had pooled their money and bought a large quantity of sub-light spaceships and land craft as part of their supplies, as well as a number of mining drones. They were presently setting up the drones to begin mining operations on Miriam and Hogsmeade.

"This is a most excellent location," commented Scott Flitwick, the chief of mining operations. "Once a sizeable amount of ore is mined out of Miriam, through recycling it should be more than enough to sustain us indefinitely. Same goes for the gasses and plasma in Hogsmeade. If all goes well, we should be up and running at full capacity in a couple weeks."

"Keep up the good work, Scott," Dwight clapped him on the back. He walked away and tapped his wrist communicator, "Smith to _Malfoy_."

"Oswald here."

"You about ready to head out here? Finished shipping down the supplies?"

"Just about," came the reply. "Just a few more things and I'll be on my way. Think you'll be able to swing it?"

"Everything's under control and going perfectly," Dwight said. "Bye, old friend. It'll be a shame not having you along."

"Bah, we've already been over this. Let's not draw this out into a week-long goodbye."

Mr. Smith chuckled. "Sorry."

The next day, Eugene Nott approached him to discuss the results of the preliminary DNA analyses. "The results look promising," Nott told him. "We should be able to begin shortly, err... What should I call you? Minister Smith? Mayor Smith?"

"Just Mr. Smith will do. Or Dwight if you prefer," he grinned.

"Very well, Mr. Smith it is then," Nott said. "I'll keep you posted on our progress."

" _Malfoy_ to Smith," beeped his wrist-comm.

"Smith here," Dwight tapped his wrist.

"The last load of supplies has been sent down. I'm ready to leave now."

"Thanks, Oswald," Dwight grinned. "Feel free to drop by to visit whenever you like."

"Take care, Dwight. Oswald out."

High above, the colony ship _Malfoy_ broke orbit of the planet Janus and set a course for home, vanishing into hyperspace. But on the surface below, the colonists were working hard to make a brand new home here. A home that would endure for generations to come.

* * *

**The Calendar**

"Hmm," Dwight mused over a program to quickly convert Earth years into Janus years. "I'm thirty-six years old in Earth years. That would make me sixty-four in Janus years. Oi, this will take some getting used to."

The program could even calculate when someone's birthday would be on Janus. With some help from the scientists, Dwight had designed an eight-month calendar for Janus, each of twenty-six days, with extra days at the four quarters of the year. When the two suns set in unison, he called it the winter solstice. When one set exactly as the other was rising, he dubbed it the summer solstice, the one day of the year that there was no night at all. Arbitrarily, he decided that New Years would fall on the day that the colony was established, which happened to be on the day midway between the winter and summer solstices. Thus he called the opposite day, Midyear's Day.

Calling the divisions of the year "months" was rather arbitrary as well, considering Janus had no moons. Its twin suns made for a good basis for a calendar, however. When debating over having four quarters or eight months, he surveyed a number of the colonists and discovered that they would be more comfortable with divisions closer to Earth's months. So, eight months it was. He was, however, at a total loss at what to name the months, so he just numbered them instead.

To avoid further confusion, Dwight decided that the day would officially begin and end when the sun Fred rose. The smaller sun, George, would only be used to determine what time of year it was, and not what time of day.

In spite of the difference in years, the colonists insisted on carrying over the seven-day week from Earth, appropriate or not, including the four days outside the months. Since they arrived on Janus on a Sunday, they carried on the calendar from there. However, due to the slightly different lengths between Earth days and Janus days, the pattern of weekdays would eventually desynchronize.

* * *

**Pensare School**

Over the next few weeks, cosntruction of the Pensare School of Psionics continued, but such a large building as they planned would take time to complete. In order to get started sooner, the first classes were actually held outdoors, in the fields in the north part of the valley.

"I've worked out a curriculum and brought on some teachers," Pensare mused. "This should work out nicely. I've assigned them each to teach areas they are most skilled at. Here's the list of the Pensare School staff and what they are teaching." Ben handed him a data pad.

"Calliope Greengrass?" Dwight said, looking over the list. "She was assigned to help with getting the crops growing. But, if she can teach some other people how to do that as well, I don't see why not."

Greengrass, however, was quite happy with the arrangement. A group of students of varying ages sat in the grass around her as she told them about what she did for a living.

"Wiz-- er, Psionicists we're calling them now, I suppose. Psionicists that specialize in plants are called herbalists, or some call them druids," Professor Greengrass explained. "Druids are very important, especially in farming. They can keep plants healthy, kill weeds, and make plants grow faster."

Other students were already preparing for classes that would only be available once the actual school opened. To teach pyrokinetics, Pensare wanted a nice, solid environment of stone to make sure nothing got out of hand. Hence, he ordered the pyrokinetics classroom built entirely of stone, even the desks and chairs. He rejected the idea of just using metal on the argument that it might overheat and cause injuries anyway.

"You need parental permission to take Basic Pyrokinetics," Ignas sighed, "and my mother won't let me. She thinks I'm too young."

"Hey, I can teach you, Iggy!" Seth said happily. "I'll just go to the class and pass along whatever they tell me."

"Really? Nifty!"

Ignas's mother, Candace Weasley, was oblivious to this arrangement. In her makeshift office, she sat arranging coursework for the Pyrokinetics classes she had agreed to teach at Pensare. Punching in notes on her data pad, she had written up extensive lectures on the uses and dangers of pyrokinetics, and about the problems their misuse had caused in previous centuries.

In the Transfiguration class, Ignas struggled with a wooden stick. No matter how hard he tried, it wouldn't cooperate. He tried to beat it, force it, bend it, any way he could to change its shape, but to no avail.

Professor Cresswell seemed to notice he was having trouble, and walked over to him. "You're going about it the wrong way," he smiled, taking the stick from the boy's hands. "You can't force it. You have to coax the shape out of the wood." He ran his fingers along the wood lightly, and the stick began to bend smoothly. "You must caress it, convince it, touch it, like making love to a beautiful woman--"

"Uh, Professor?" Ignas raised an eyebrow, shifting awkwardly and wondering if he'd taken a wrong turn and ended up in the wrong class

"Oh, yes, sorry," Cresswell said quickly, handing the stick back. "As I was saying, don't try to force it so much. It's as much working with the wood as making the wood work for you."

The one subject that was notably missing from Pensare's projected curriculum was the talent of Compulsion, not even stopping merely at the likes of the Imperius Curse. The council had voted unanimously to prohibit any form of mind control in the colony, while simultaneously promoting the other aspects of psionics. They hoped that in this way, problems would be prevented before they even began, and those few of the colonists who knew how to control the mind of another would take that knowledge with them to the grave.


End file.
